Social Assistance and Poverty Reduction in Moldova, 2001-2004 : An Impact Evaluation
This paper assesses the impact of social assistance benefits on household welfare in Moldova. Ignoring standard issues of impact evaluations such as selection bias, behavioral responses, unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, an incidence analys...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9620022/social-assistance-poverty-reduction-moldova-2001-2004-impact-evaluationbr-social-assistance-poverty-reduction-moldova-2001-2004-impact-evaluation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6861 |
| Summary: | This paper assesses the impact of social
assistance benefits on household welfare in Moldova.
Ignoring standard issues of impact evaluations such as
selection bias, behavioral responses, unobserved
heterogeneity and endogeneity, an incidence analysis
suggests that increased spending on social assistance
enhances the probability of moving out of poverty and
reduces the probability of moving into poverty. However,
double difference estimates (based on a mimicked randomized
experiment) and parametric estimates (based on panel data)
indicate that social benefits have not contributed to
improve household welfare or reduce poverty. Double
difference estimates point to a negative impact on welfare.
Parametric estimates do not yield any consistent significant
impact on welfare or poverty. The author concludes that the
growth in population coverage and expenditure on cash
benefits that characterized social assistance policies in
recent years has not resulted in a significant improvement
in welfare, all other factors being equal. |
|---|